A father's choice
by EimiaRae
Summary: A small one chapter story of the moment where Steven Saunders must choose between his daughter and his "project" Contains spoilers for season 3.


I'm going to start writing again so I decided to write a simple one chapter story to begin with. I was rewatching season 3 and the episode when Jack nearly sends Jane Saunders into the infected hotel. So this is a short story about that scene.

Steven clocked where he was. Standing outside of the Chandler Plaza hotel where only hours earlier hundreds had died, from _his _virus. Innocents? Yes. But every war has casualties. He looked at Jack Bauer who was pacing slightly in front of him, as if waiting for something. He wondered why he was being forced to stand here. Jack surely knew he felt no guilt for these people? Two men in gas masks stood guard outside of the hotel; the entrance was covered to prevent any of the virus from leaking to the air. "Take a look at your handiwork." Jack suddenly said, looking at the bodies being wheeled off in stretchers. All of their faces were covered in blood that had dripped from their noses and mouths. "You murdered these people Steven. Whole families!" Jack yelled the last part as he walked towards the entrance, away from him.  
>"Sometimes a fire needs to be lit in order to put out another fire." Steven raised his voice so that Jack would hear him but Jack didn't stop or take this in. He turned and said, much calmer now than before. "I don't wanna hear your justification, this is over. You are gonna tell me how to find the rest of the vials now!" He sounded very confident. Steven resisted the urge to smirk, like he'd listen to anything Jack said, this was far more important than a few corpses. "Or you'll send me inside the hotel? I'm prepared to die for my cause Jack." Steven raised his head slightly, looking death in the face. Jack muttered something like 'yeah I know' as he turned away. Then he raised the radio at the front of his jacket. "Chase? Come in."<br>A faint "Copy that" came from the other end of the radio and everyone turned towards a blue helicopter. When Steven turned along with them he saw Jack's partner with his hand clutching his daughters arm.

He could tell from the look on her face that she had no idea why she was there. When she saw her father her expression changed from confusion to disgust. Steven couldn't keep his eyes off of his teenage daughter, refusing to look away from her for risk of her being harmed. When she was only a few steps away he turned around. "What are you doing Jack?" The thing that worried him was that Jack, who was speaking so much earlier, had suddenly, fell silent. Then he heard his daughter's voice, shaky with fear. "Why did you bring me here?"  
>She directed the question to Jack but he simply looked at her and replied with "Ask your father it's up to him." What did that mean?<br>"Dad?" she was looking at him now, he sensed hate, disgust but mainly fear, it soaked through her voice and nearly broke his heart as her father. "Tell me how to find your courier Steven; or I'm gonna put your daughter in that building."  
>"You wouldn't dare, she has <em>nothing to do with this!<em>" his control wavered for a second as the last part of the sentence exploded in a sudden burst of anger. He had been dreading to think of reasons why his daughter was here, he refused to believe it was for blackmail. Jack couldn't do this, it must be a show. "Neither did the people in those body bags! I'm gonna do everything I have to do to stop you releasing more of this virus. " Jack had a fair point but Steven wanted to scream that he didn't know the corpses in those bags. He didn't know their names, or birthdays or favourite colour. He hadn't grown up apart from them but still thought of them every day. He hadn't done all of this for them, he'd done it for her, only her. "How could you do this?" Jane's mouth fell open as she gaped wide-eyed at Jack, completely shocked. "I'm gonna give you one chance." Jack looked at him, was that a threat? Steven suddenly felt stupid for having been scared in the first place. "No you won't." A shred of confidence returned to him, though the concern for his daughter still stayed in the pit of his stomach. Jack ignored his last remark "Tell me how I find them." Why was he still doing this? Didn't Jack see he wasn't falling for it? "You know you can't do this Jack. You are a government agent!" He stopped as Jack looked at Jane. He seemed to pause for a slight second before saying "Send her in." Chase hesitated, his hand still on Jane's arm, not moving. "Take her inside now!" Jack yelled and Chase complied. He started pulling his daughter towards the entrance.

"No!" his daughter protested, struggling for all she was worth against Chase. She writhed in his grip as he walked calmly, dragging her, towards the hotel. Jane twisted round and looked her father straight in the eyes. "Dad, stop them!" she pleaded, that was the last rational thing she said. "Dad stop them, stop them Dad!" Her voice rose to a high pitched shriek, she closed her eyes and thrashed her head, her brown hair flicking from left to right. Steven felt a tug on his chest. She was at the tent now, all they had to do was pull her forwards, blast her with the steam and push her in. A few seconds, that's all it would take. "Stop them dad, dad _please!" _She was begging him, she was pleading for her life. That "please" held the fear of a little girl, who needed her daddy to save her. He wanted to save her, he was her father, and he felt the primal urge to rescue his little girl, his hand twitched. As the quarantine tent opened and she was pulled into the small area, less than two meters from the hotel doors she started screaming incoherently, he could just hear "No!" over and over again.

The primal urge became too much. As his daughter was ripped away from the safety of outside and dragged into danger he pulled at the arms restraining him desperately. "Jane." Her name escaped from him, his voice sounded weak with fear, hopelessness. In contrast as Jack turned to face him his voice was angry and strong as he said "Everything that happens to your daughter is because of you." He started walking towards the tent where his Jane was now screaming and pulling and crying. The tent closed.

As the fog started to fill the tent, shrouding his daughter in the last safe air she would ever inhale Steven's heart lurched. "Get her out of there Jack." He said; the alarms started blazing as the fog fell and his daughter was revealed, still sweating and screaming. "Jack get her out of there!" His voice was now angry and desperate as he shouted at the government agent to release his daughter. Fear raced through his blood as he watched his daughter fight against her gas-masked captors. "Where are the vials?" Jack had his interrogating tone of voice but Steven barely noticed.  
>"Get her out of there!" he repeated as he tried to free him self of the men holding him back.<br>"How do I find the vials?" Jack and Steven seemed to be in a dangerous game of Cat and Mouse, Jane's life was at stake, he didn't have time for this.  
>"Let her go!" He yelled as he heard his daughter cry out, her voice hoarse. "Do as I say now Jack!" His accent came through strongly as he demanded his request.<p>

Jack walked forwards and in a few short seconds his hand was at Steven's throat, his eyes staring at him. He pushed Steven's throat slightly and then said "When your daughter is infected…" He paused and then continued in a spiteful sadistic voice "I'm gonna make you watch her die." He smiled cruelly and he pulled Steven up by his throat so he choked slightly before dropping him. "Let her go!" Steven shouted twice but no-one listened. Jane reached the doors of the hotel and screamed. "You're running out of time Steven." Jack said as one of the gas masked agents placed a hand on the glass door.  
>"Jack!" Steven sounded like he was about to shout something else but Jack cut him off.<br>"Steven you're out of time!"

Steven gave in. "Stop, stop stop I'll tell you!" He sounded near tears. "Just don't hurt her." The concern in his voice was enough for anyone to see that even though he was a monster he truly did love his daughter. The alarms stopped, Jane's shrieks lowered to small pathetic whimpers and everyone froze, even the agent with his hand on the door, waiting for Jack's order.

Jack walked slowly towards Steven and asked him calmly "Where are the vials?" Breathing heavily Steven paused for a slight second before answering. "Each one is tagged with a GPS locator chip so I could track them right up until they moment they were released."  
>"Where are the locator codes?"<br>"In my head." Steven watched as Jack's expression shifted into disbelief.  
>"You memorised all eleven?" Jack's voice indicated that he strongly doubted this. Steven had had enough. "Yeah. Get her out of there." He nodded towards her daughter who was still inside the tunnel at the hotel entrance. Jack lifted his radio up to his mouth and told Chase to get Jane out of the tunnel. "Let's go." He said and the two agents on either side of Steven started taking him away as he looked over at his daughter being pushed from the tunnel, she still looked scared, her hair and clothes were messy and crumpled but she was safe and alive. Steven breathed out a sigh of relief; he'd saved his little girl's life.<p> 


End file.
